I have three extremely good condition $2 US bills from the 50s before they started printing "In God We Trust" on them.
I own land. It's been there all along.
I've got some rocks on a shelf from the Permian. So a little older than 250 million years.
I have a pendant which is made of a tiny piece of Campo Del Cielo meteorite. It's several billion years old (4.5 according to wiki).
My birth certificate ☺️
Blue Bear.
When I was maybe 3 (I don't remember personally, I heard this story years later), my sister who was 9 at the time had this stuff bear. Blue fur, not much special about it, just an average stuffed bear. One day I decided I liked the bear more, and declared it mine. I was 3, that's what 3 year olds do. A great fight ensued, but since I was the baby Mom told my sister to just let me have it. It was stolen a few times, and stolen back a few more times. And then hidden away for a great many years. Until one day in our 30s, going through my old toy box at my father's house, hidden under some old report cards and junk toys, laid Blue Bear. And a great fight ensued, only this time with words and the occasional hip check into the wall to grab and dash. My step mother stepped in to tell us the smarten up and just give me the bear. And that was the first time I actually appreciated my step mother for something. She bought my sister whiskey to make up for it, but we all knew who won that day.
Blue Bear now sits in my living room display case.
1855 handbook from the freemasons detailing their rituals, imagery, ranks, and more.
A tooth from a megalodon. Not sure how old it is exactly, somewhere between 3.6 million years and 23 million years.
A cast iron pan that I inherited from my grandmother is around 100 years old.
old as in the item's age or old describing how long I've owned it for?
first one is an enameled cast iron pot that my folks got decades ago, one of their folks had it - it's a really ugly 1960s orangish sort of red/brown. it's super old, but I've only had it for 5 or 6 years. damn thing is so ugly it just keeps getting passed down to whomever likes to cook.
2nd one is my can opener - got it in 1998, it's built like a tank. actually used to it hammer tent pegs into rocky soil when camping once.
My knees.
License plates from 1925. I'm tempted to put them on my car in a year because they simply say 25 on them.
Commemorative medallion from a battle in Sweden around 1640, cant remember exact year.
A chunk of amethyst mineral from Uruguay I got at a mining museum - millions of years old or possibly much more.
Little book full of German religious psalms and poetry, printed 1692. Not worth much really, but smells great and is fun to look at. Have to be careful with it though, quite brittle if still in good shape.
My grandfather founded a liquid propane company and I have the adding machine he used as a register. It may not be quite literally the oldest thing I own, but I consider it the coolest old thing I own.
The sides of it are plastic so you can see the mechanisms and it weighs a gazillion pounds. My wife hates it because we've moved it through three houses. I love it and will never voluntarily let it go.
A couple notable things:
1930s acoustic guitar
1880s-1890s cast iron scotch bowl
Family photos and photographic plates dating back to the Victorian
Hundred year old package of patchouli, which still has smell!
Either the fossils I found on a beach in Estonia or rocks. Oldest man-made thing is maybe my antique closet from early 20th century.
A musical instrument (with some very old sheet music, an ancestor used to play piano for silent movies), a stamp collection (with lots of stamps, some from the 1800s).
I think... An old cookbook that belonged to my grandma before she passed away. Otherwise maybe a coin from Roman times.
My great-grandfather’s rocking chair. I don’t know the exact date, but it’s from the early 1900’s and was refurbished some time in the 50’s. Still in amazing shape and solid as hell.
I have a decent amount of older family heirlooms, but the oldest thing that was only ever mine is probably my first passport. I was maybe 4 months old when I got it, and it definitely has the most/coolest stamps of all of the passports I've ever had. Of course I don't remember any of it, but I keep it in the hopes that someday one of my adult books will measure up.
A Japanese tea ceremony chest, which is mid-Meji period ~1890s and a book on hypnotism from 1906.
Coins, I suppose. I have some from the late 19th century so nothing crazy like the Roman stuff, although I'd love to have some of those ancient ones.
Some old things I own:
- A top I used to wear in school which I haven't thrown away because it still fits me and is in good condition. I have even worn it in recent times. It's close to 30 years old.
- Last year I finally purchased a new laptop to replace my old one that I had been using since 2009.
- I own a piece of clothing belonging to my grandma that she used to wear to parties. I wore it for a function in October. I don't know exactly how old it is, probably purchased in 1960s or 1970s.
I found a 105 year old german artillery fuse cap with a metal detector some years back so maybe that. I have some old tools aswell but impossible to say how old they really are. Last summer I found a 100 year old coin too.
In daily use? My 1943 Epiphone Zenith arch top guitar.
I have a hand tool for scraping fish used by native Americans that I found in a sand dune in Florida. Quite old.
1958 suburban house
Kitchen table is 1880ish? My mom got it from one of her first palliative patients who got it from their parents and had nobody else to leave it with when they passed. Use it daily and have it paired with some modern steel chairs ... it's a little eclectic around here.
I've got some straight razors as well. Pretty sure some of the Swedish ones go back to 1700s.
My wife collects mechanical wristwatches. But since we aren't millionaires, she buys them in bulk lots online. Most times she'll get an interesting or semi-valuable watch or two. Usually broken or damaged in some way, but often within her ability to repair.
So. One day her watch haul included a double hunter pocketwatch whose maker's mark we weren't familiar with - "JW Benson". And inside the case was the text "Watchmaker by warrants to the Queen and the Prince of Wales."
Between those two, we managed to deduce that it had been manufactured sometime around 1880 (+/- a couple years. The company was bombed in WWII and a lot of records burned. IIRC, we had narrowed it to like a five year span, but the exact dates couldn't be determined beyond that)
Anyway. That watch - which still runs - is probably the oldest thing.
Probably some of my japanese wood working tools. It's hard to tell for sure though.
I buy all of my tools from an online discount store and they never have any known origin. It's difficult to date because Japanese tools are extremely traditional and a modern one can be indistinguishable from an ancient one.
That being said some of my tools show signs of extremely strenuous use and are definitely on the older side. Additionally they are made of wrought iron, it comes from raw pig iron and has to be hand forged and shaped. Most Japanese tools now use modern soft iron with exceptions being very high end tools and very experienced blacksmiths (making tools out of wrought iron is much more difficult).
After comparing images of Japanese tools from various time periods I estimate one of my plane blades could be from the 1800s. Mostly wishful thinking but definitely in the realm of possibility. Unfortunately the blacksmith that forged it was not famous enough to have any recorded information, documentation or mentions but it is still an exquisitely crafted blade, even if it's seen a lot of love.
I have a couple of Griswold cast iron skillets - an “8” and a “10”. I just looked up their particular vintage and they are both from 1930-1939, so 83 to 93 years old. Im confident that those are the oldest things I have that I use regularly and they are probably the oldest things I own.
Like the think that I have owned the longest? Or the thing that was made the longest ago?
If it's the thing that I've owned the longest, my cartridge of Mega Man X, which I have owned since about 1995 or 1996.
If it's the thing that was made the longest ago, my wife's sewing kit that she inherited from her aunt, which was probably made in the 1970s.
Compaq portable plus luggable PC
Need to redo the foam and foil keys but otherwise it works great, let out the magic smoke the first time i powered it up so i did a re-cap and now it starts fine.
And it even has a working hard drive!
I also have an IBM Lexmark model M keyboard I use as my daily driver
nothing really. I stopped being a sentimentalist/collector/hoarder years ago, I've packed up my life into cardboard boxes and moved all over the world more than 35 times in my life and I've just got no energy left to drag around old things with me everywhere I go.
Some volcanic rocks from mt St Helens
1960s Wurlitzer electronic piano.
Some sea snail fossils probably
Ive got a Magnavox Odyssey
My parents ashes in my basement. My dad was born in ‘32
I have a top loader NES and two games I bought for it.
My house. Just the house.
My house was built in '53
A couple million year old rock
That i can think of, a pre-1937 hand tool. Pre Stanley brand brace hand drill, recent purchase, dirt cheap compared to new, and only needed a quick clean.
A Sheaffer Balance fountain pen that I bought and restored, I believe it's from somewhere around 1934. A few fountain pens that are certainly old but of unknown date as well.
Runner up would be my house built in the early 50's.
My piano technique book from 1960 I purchased from a second hand store. I bought it and have been teaching myself piano.
A Dunn & Co. boater hat from ~1890 with a blue and white striped band.
F-70 "patent applied for" 3/8 Snap-On ratcheting wrench from 1933, still works. I know I have older tools but I haven't or couldn't date them.
I do have older coins, but the wrench is cooler.
A 1960 Deutz D15 tractor from my grandfather.
Gilette Fat Boy razor.
Pretty sure it's my testicle.
A camcorder from 2002. Imagine 00's skateboarding clips!
Probaly some Ottoman coins since my father runs buisness selling old money.
I've got a fossil of a shell, no idea how old. And a penny from 1913 that was almost 100 years old when I found it and has since gotten older.
A porcelain doll that's likely over 100 years old. It's most certainly haunted.
I also have some old vintage copies of Oedipus Rex from like the 1800s?
some curtains
Silver plated dining utensil set circa WWII. Nothing significant about it, just from the time.
As far as I can guess, stones of shungite estimated to be about two billion years old.
The oldest man-made thing I have is a carved stone hammerhead.
Petrified fern (unless I gave it to my niece. Hrm, I don't remember)
